Sunday, January 20, 2008

Jumbo vs the Li'l Master

On January 21, 2007Sachin T145 test matches235 innings11616 runsSachin's latest statsAnil K124 test matches223 innngs603 wicketsAnil's latest statsNow I'd like to apply the popularly accepted conversion of wickets to runs.5 wickets = 100 runsSo Anil Kumble's 603 puts him a tad over 12000 runs, which is a few tads more than Sachin Tendulkar in a few less matches.I've just cast my vote on who I think is India's greatest cricketer. What do you think?

In a team game, onus lies on number of factors and all the players players.

And in case Sachin not winning much for iNDIA, lets also take into account games where he scored and match was a draw (and assume in case he had not scored what would be the outcome of the game). This is simple, take the percentage of his score to the total score and the score of other top 4 batsmen in the team.

And in the games we have won, the total runs contributed by other top 5 batsmen to the total score must also be considered.

Undoubtedly Kumble. Look, in the absence of a good bowling attack, Anil Kumble did most of the work. Sure there were Javagal, Venky et al, but then they were like there once the new ball had lost its venom, you see. On the other hand, Sachin had Azhar, Kambli, Jadeja, et al, and has Dravid, Uthappa, Sehwag, Laxman, Ganguly, Dhoni, in fact the list would seem endless. So, he can get around to batting freely or conservatively. And considering that this game, at least in the sub continent, is completely batsman friendly, my vote would to go to Kumble.

Lastly, taking your argument of a fiver=a century, when was the last time Sachin scored a double and we won the match? And we know what happened when Kumble got that perfect ten! :-)

Cricket is a team game. The trouble is that each Indian player wants to be the greatest. Balls to the team. I hope that they scrap the National Team except for the world cup. That would do the game a lot of good.